7 Ways to Get More Value from Every Blog You Post
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Do you love blogging as much as I do, or does it feel like a chore? Either way, just like any other marketing strategy, you want to squeeze as much juice as possible out of the time and effort you put into your blog posts. No matter which side of the fence you sit on, these blogging strategies from Daren Low will help you do just that.
We all know the feeling…
You spend hours creating wonderful blog posts. You research and write a unique piece of content, carefully structure the post, and add all the images. Finally, you hit publish, and wait for the flood of visitors.
But, it never comes.
The simple truth is that pressing ‘publish’ isn’t the end of your blogging process. In fact, it’s just the start.
Your Organizing Business is a big advocate of content marketing, but with so many blogs out there, I’ll show you how to squeeze as much value out of each of your posts as possible.
First things first, if we’re going to unlock maximum value from your blog, we need a clear goal.
1. Why are you writing content?
Every marketing strategy, whether it’s social media, advertising, or content, should start with one big question: why?
Why are you writing blogs? What do you hope to achieve?
Let’s say your goal is to get people to download your e-courses. How will blogging help you achieve that specific goal? How will blogging help you sell more e-courses?
In this case, you would keep your blog closely related to your course topics. Your goal would be to reach the right target audience with your writing. You might use that blog to convert people into email subscribers so you can eventually sell them an e-course. You’d use the blog to prove you’re an expert, and persuade readers to learn more.
By taking a step back at the beginning, you can understand clearly how blogging helps you achieve your wider goals. And that will give you more value from every article you post.
2. Use a content upgrade to grow an email list
The real value in your blog lies in whether you can convert readers into customers. The more readers you convert, the more valuable your blog post.
The first step is encouraging visitors to sign up to an email list. That way, they don’t leave your website and disappear!
You can do this with all sorts of tricks, such as offering a free ebook. This is called a ‘lead magnet‘. However, there’s a new trick that has proven even more effective: the content upgrade. Some blogs have reported a 529% increase in conversions using it.
Quite simply, it means adding an extra bit of value to your blog, and asking for an email address to unlock it. It could be a video tutorial to accompany the process you’re explaining. It could be a cheatsheet or checklist to download. Here’s what it looks like in the wild:
It adds value to the blog itself, and it adds value to your business because you get a flood of extra email subscribers.
3. Spend as long promoting it as you do writing (if not more)
The more views your blog gets, the more valuable it is. The ideal traffic graph for each blog should look like this:
You want a big explosion of traffic at the start, and then a long trickle of visitors that keep coming. The bigger the explosion, the longer the ‘long-tail’.
So, once you’ve hit publish, the hard work starts!
Use all your available channels to promote the new blog post at the same time: your email list, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. That should create a nice explosion of traffic. (Don’t forget, you can – and should – post about the blog on social media multiple times in the two-week period after you publish).
Next, spend some additional time promoting the post to new audiences. Post it in the forums that are relevant to your topic. Post it on Quora in answer to someone’s question. Post it on Reddit in a relevant subreddit. Ask to write a guest post at another blog, and link back to your post.
Get creative here! The bottom line is that it’s best to spend just as long promoting the post as you do writing it. That’s how you get real value out of it!
4. Cite influencers, and ask them to share your post
One fantastic promotional trick is citing active bloggers in your article, especially ones with a large audience relevant to your blog. Quote them and link back to their site.
Once your blog is online, drop them an email to let them know you’ve quoted them. Ask nicely if they wouldn’t mind sharing it with their audience.
You make a new connection in your niche, and your blog gets a flock of new traffic. Instant added value!
5. Ask for comments
Comments are a great way to add value to your blog post. It sparks debate, and creates a better engagement for your website. But how do you encourage them?
This one is simple. Just end the article with a question. Ask for feedback or advice. Ask your readers to share their experience. Just one comment will start the ball rolling.
6. Make it easy to share so your blog reaches further
By now, we’ve established that your blog generates more value the further it reaches. So actively encourage sharing. Every time your readers share your content, it hits a new audience.
Make sure there are large social sharing buttons at the bottom and top of every post. And don’t be afraid to ask. A recent study showed that tweets that actually asked followers to retweet gets 51% more retweets than those that don’t.
7. Repurpose, recycle, and reuse!
If you’ve spent hours researching a topic, don’t let that time go to waste. Sure, you don’t want to post the same blog twice. But what about turning it into a podcast and promoting that two weeks later?
How about turning the info it into a highly shareable infographic? Try turning it into a YouTube video or creating a presentation on Slideshare. Rather than promoting that topic once, you can now do it four times, in four different ways!
There are so many options to wring out more value from that one topic. Reusing the content is just good sense. Don’t let any of it go to waste!
Try it yourself!
Next time you write a blog, don’t just hit ‘publish’. Think about how you can squeeze a ton of extra value out of it.
Have you got any tricks that I’ve missed? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Photo © Rachel Rouhana / Haute Chocolate
Graphic © cienpies / depositphotos
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Oh my… I’m so new in this and looks like a hard thing to do… I need more advice on where and how to share my blog posts, I mean, how to actually do it right.
Thanks very much for your comment, Mel – that’s a very important topic, yet I don’t think I’ve ever covered it here on my blog! I’ll have to see about doing that in the near future.
Hi Mel, thank you for the comment!
I guess there is no definite way in doing this. However the rule of thumb is to deliver the message to your audiences. Having said, you need to know who your audiences are and the places where they usually hang out. Join in their conversations and help to solve their problem with your blogposts.Hope that helps a little.
I’ve never thought to ask people to share, but I have responded when asked to do so! I had been considering asking for pin if I felt I had a post that was particularly “pin-worthy”… great tip!
It’s one of those things that should be done in moderation. It would likely be annoying if someone put “Please RT” on all their tweets, but just like you, I’ve happily done so when asked.
Promotion is 80% of my time, writing is 10% and editing photos is 10%. Reposting my blogs seasonally or annually when the come back ary
Thanks for sharing that, Autumn! You set a great example for those of us who may not promote as much as we ought to.
Besides re-sharing, I find upgrading the content an interesting way to reengage the readers. Because we learn new things everyday, our view, strategy changes everyday too. By adding extra into the blog post at later time, not only it’s useful to readers, it’s beneficial to the post in term of SEO (think content freshness with the updated timestamp)
The ‘Why’ is very important! We can go to that when we need encouragement to stay the course. It does seem to take awhile to get traction! I want to help people by being there for them during separation and divorce. If I can help avoid common mistakes and make people feel a bit better about their situation I feel good. I love my clients telling me that I am now a little voice in their head when things come up that we have discussed! I also love to hear how certain blogs make people feel like I wrote it just for them! That feels pretty wonderful!
It’s a sure sign you’re doing something right!
Hi Janet! I hope you are fabulous 🙂
Thank you to Daren for this post.
After 5 years of writing in Minimalist Self I felt that my themes were evolving so I started a new blog, Peaceful Home.
The previous work was just a love project really so I didn’t do much with it. It sometimes generated interest and other times didn’t. In fact, I kept it quite separate from my coaching business until about a year ago.
It has been neat starting over with intention. To Daren’s point #1, I write because I love to write. Before, I was feeling conflicted between the love of it and designing it for business. That confusion left me with apathy. Now I enjoy it more if I just stick with the desire to express.
However, by starting over I can incorporate broadcasting (pull marketing) as part of that expression right from the beginning. Therefore, points 3,5,6,7 have been established. But my goal is to just make them a habit, not a consuming priority.
Your post has been helpful to confirm all this for me, thanks!
p.s. my first post? Leaving Facebook! That’s been an adventure, lol!
Our journeys have been similar, Jo. My first blog was separate from my website and was mostly about business, but very unfocused. I now have a personal blog for when I want to write about things that aren’t about business.
Here’s another post you might enjoy: Striking a Balance Between Posts for Your Readers and Your Passions.
Thank you Jo! I’m glad that you find the post helpful.
I don’t know about you but I tend to trust bloggers who are willing to express themselves (in their personal blog). It’s the genuineness that counts. I have always wanted to start a personal blog for long but procrastinations kept me busy. Perhaps Medium.com is my salvation.
“Daily news reimagined”. Well that is interesting! I had not heard of medium.com before.
To Janet and Daren – this is the neat thing about being a coach and writing about positive psychology basically. I often use the lens of my life stories to express the theme of a post, even if the topic is ‘not so personal’ like organizing a home office. The pare down and slow down message can touch hearts (and nerves ;-p) but I feel I can’t go wrong if my approach is not giving advice but just demonstrating how I make a strategy work for me.
I think that’s really important, especially in your line of work. Offering tips is good, but that personal touch is what makes you stand out from everyone else in your field.
Very helpful post Janet. One easy thing that I don’t do is to promote my posts for two weeks after I create them. Silly me has been sharing across various media platforms just the one time! Now I know better. Thank you.
I used to do that too, and worried that repeating myself would be annoying, till I clued in that it’s the only way to make sure a lot of people see it – especially on Twitter, where everything disappears so quickly.